This is possibly the most publicised haunted site in Edinburgh, and attracts thousands of visitors every year underneath the Edinburgh City Chambers. Mary King's Close runs North to South across the Royal Mile, parallel with Anchor Close. You can see the doorway from standing on Cockburn Street, but nothing can compare to walk up the close itself.

The Close was once the home to Edinburgh's devasted plague victims, and this is what is believed to have left Mary King's Close a lively supernatural site. It is believed that plague victims were boarded within the Close, and left to die. It was some time after the plague had cleared before Mary King's Close was to opened up again, and to a gruesome sight.

The carcasses within Mary King's Close had rotted to an extent that the flesh was hanging from the bodies. Since the Close lies on such slope, there had to be a solution to removing the hundreds of bodies from the Close. Two men were brought in to do the job, armed with axes and wheelbarrows, their trade - butchers.

After the Close was cleared, a Mr and Mrs Coldhart were the first people to move in. Stories of floating body parts and apparitions of severed heads soon became heard around Edinburgh, and there began the hauntings of Mary King's Close.

Mary King's Close was habited right up to the early 1900's when the last resident, Mr Andrew Chesney left and the story of Mary King's Close has been more familiar today with tours into the site. The most popular story from Mary King's Close, is that of a young girl believed to be around five years old. One of the first film crews to be taken into the Close, contained a Japanese psychic who had refused point blank to enter a particular room beacuse 'there was too much sadness'. After a short session with the young girl, the psychic believed that she had been taken away from her family beacuse she had 'the sickness', but had not had time to pick up her doll. The psychic promtly requested one of her film crew go onto the Royal Mile and bring back a doll for the girl. Since then, a collection of dolls and toys have been brought for the girl and left in a shrine for her, but nobody has ever seen or heard from her. Possibly because any child in her day would have been extremely lucky to have so many toys !

Common experiences in Mary King's Close today are hot and cold spots, as well as occasional sightings of spirits joining the tours !

You can visit our Pictures Archive for several orbs captured in Mary King's Close.

Tours run regularly in tourist season from Mercat Cross. which can be found in our Links section